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Can a Home Inspector in Sacramento Make Repairs?
Your real estate agent knows the best Sacramento home inspectors
When it comes to finding a home inspector in Sacramento, usually a buyer’s best bet is to use the recommendation from her Sacramento Realtor. You might wonder if there is a conflict of interest but there is not. Agents want their buyers to receive the most accurate assessment of the home they are buying. It relieves much liability on the agent’s part and the end result is an informed buyer. Although, if you’re looking for a conflict of interest, let’s talk about whether a home inspector in Sacramento can make repairs for the defects noted in the report.
Because there are no licensing requirements for a home inspector in Sacramento, it could happen. In fact, I’ve seen companies decide to jump on the all-inclusive bandwagon when it comes to home inspections. They want to provide pest inspections, roof inspections, sewer inspections, along with their home inspections to best monotize the opportunity at hand — which has always seemed like a bad idea to this Sacramento Realtor.
I prefer to refer specialists and not opportunists to my clients. Those companies sell the service as a one-call-does-it-all, perhaps to attract lazy agents who don’t want to be bothered with scheduling multiple specialists to inspect the home on different days and times. It would not surprise me to learn that some of those one-call-does-it-all home inspectors also have their fingers in a contracting company, what any reputable home inspector in Sacramento would call unethical. I don’t know of any national home inspector association that promotes the notion of allowing inspectors to make repairs.
Not only do the national home inspection trade associations frown on a home inspector making repairs, they don’t want a home inspector even handing out a quote for a repair cost. No verbal estimates of repairs. Because a home inspector does not make repairs.
Now, pest companies, on the other hand, conduct their own inspections and then generally hire third-party contractors to do the dry-rot work. It’s allowed in California. I suspect they reason this conflict is OK because this way they can assure the work is done correctly. I won’t say there are not times when a seller’s contractor and the pest inspector do not see eye-to-eye. The pest company I refer to sellers, the inspector does not do any of the repairs, although he could; he’s just a pest inspector. That’s his specialty.
Buyers would fare far better to make certain the home inspector they are hiring is competent, since anybody can say they are a home inspector in California and call out as suspect any home inspector in Sacramento who would quote estimates for repairs or, god forbid, offer to make the repairs. It’s unlikely to happen. Most home inspectors pride themselves on providing an adequate discovery for the buyer. Don’t hire a bad home inspector. Further, bear in mind all purchase contracts in California are AS IS contracts, and the seller is not required to make any repairs.
If you would like to work a well known team in Sacramento, please call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759. We are happy to assist with selling or buying a home.
Seller Recourse for a Bad Home Inspection in Sacramento
A bad home inspection is rare in Sacramento but it does occur.
Imagine, if you will, a scenario in which a bad home inspection can blow a real estate transaction in Sacramento, further compounded by the fact that sellers have no voice in the matter about which company will inspect their home, and you’ve got fodder for potential lawsuits, if not at least more revisions to the California Residential Purchase Agreement. It’s a crazy situation that there seems to be no solution to. It’s been this way in Sacramento real estate for so long that nobody even questions the validity of such shenanigans.
First there is the issue that the listing side and the selling side, by the very nature of the situation, are opposing sides. Yeah, yeah, you’ve got your pundits who want to believe in the win-win concept, the rose-colored glass is always half-full, but usually one side wins a little bit more than the other. This is the main reason I don’t like to endorse dual representation, even though dual agency is legal.
Like an agent who will list her own investment property and then sell that investment property to a buyer she also represents. Talk about dual agency galore party. You’ve gotta wonder about the representation in those types of matters, and why any risk-adverse real estate agent would undertake such a thing, but some agents do. That carries such risk on so many levels it can make your head spin. What kind of risk does a buyer take to believe a home inspector referred by the seller-slash-agent?
Recourses for a Bad Home Inspection
Moreover, what can a independently represented seller do if she receives a bad home inspection, riddled with errors and mistakes, ordered by the buyer’s agent? She can call a real estate lawyer if she suffers damages because of it. She can respond to the allegations and / or obtain independent reports. But the deal is a home buyer tends to believe the home inspector her agent recommends or the home inspector she independently chooses. Most buyers don’t know up from down when it comes to a home inspection. A seller can report the home inspector to a trade association, if the inspector belongs to such a trade association, but those groups are likely to say that home inspectors sometimes make mistakes. Sometimes they do.
There is no license for a home inspector in the state of California. No home inspector license. I’ve heard agents say they work with licensed home inspectors, and that is absolutely incorrect. Just about anybody can become a “home inspector” in Sacramento. There are no exams to pass, no licenses to obtain, no credentials required. That’s how we get bad home inspections. It’s the luck of the draw. The bell curve.
Oh, and in case you’re thinking that the seller could obtain her own home inspection in advance from a reputable and established home inspector, that is a bad idea. The reasons against this bad idea are three-fold. First, no two home inspections are identical, and the seller’s home inspection might find defects that the seller would feel compelled to repair when the eventual buyer might not care about those issues. Second, the buyer’s home inspection could note repair issues not found on the seller’s. Third, the buyer will still order her own inspection, regardless. Why cross the bridge twice?
Bottom line, all purchase contracts state the sale is AS IS, and a seller is not required to do any repairs. A home inspection is simply for the buyer’s edification. Whether it is a good home inspection or a bad home inspection, a buyer might never really know.
